Fee ‘hike’ to leave tip users down in dumps

Andrew Mathieson
The cost of dumping rubbish at City of Greater Geelong tips is set to rise up to 50 per cent in July under a new environment landfill levy, councillors have warned.
They blamed recent state legislation for pushing up tip charges, which wold have a heavy impact on this year’s City budget, to be announced next month.
Cr Stretch Kontelj said the legislation would force council to pass on the extra costs to residents.
“The council has been forced to charge the environmental landfill levy by state legislation,” he said.
“That’s going to result in a significant increase in taking your rubbish to the tip.”
The City runs two resource recovery centres at North Geelong and Drysdale. State Government forced Geelong’s council to close its Corio tip a decade ago over environmental concerns.
Cr Kontelj feared the hike in charges would put the cost of dumping a trailer load of rubbish beyond the financial reach of most Geelong householders.
He predicted the state’s green waste levy would lead to an increase in illegally dumped rubbish.
“I can see that around the ring road and all the back lanes of greater Geelong will be littered with dumped rubbish because people will be doing whatever they can to avoid going to the tip.”
Cr Kontelj said the illegal dumping would force council to hire extra staff for patrols, contributing to the extra cost burden for ratepayers.
He wanted council to urge the state to reverse its levy decision, otherwise the City would have to raise rates.
Cr Andrew Katos said tip costs has risen from $165 to $330 for his family business in the past three years.
Under the new charges, Cr Kontelj suggested the cost would soar close to $500.
“Businesses will have to seek to recover this from the consumer,” he said.
“It’s going to increase costs, which fuels inflation and creates financial difficulties.”
Cr Kontelj said State Government was “gone completely out of control”.
“What they should be doing is subsidising people to take their rubbish, not penalising them,” he said.